President of the Republic
The President of the Republic is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Jay. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the Vice Commander in chief of the Republic of Jay armed forces. Article II of the Constitution vests the executive power of the Republic of Jay in the president and charges him with the execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory, and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers, with the Advice and consent of the Senate. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term, and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers, the other being the Vice President of the Republic. On January 20, 2000, Joshua M. Dunn I became the first, and current, president. Origin In 1998, the Treaty of the Republic left the Republic of Jay independent and at peace, but with an unsettled governmental structure. The Second Republic Congress had drawn up the Articles of the Republic in 1997, describing a permanent confederation, but granting to the Congress—the only federal institution—little power to finance itself or to ensure that its resolutions were enforced. In part, this reflected the anti-monarchy view of the Revolutionary period and the new Republic system was explicitly designed to prevent the rise of an Jaying tyrant. However, during the economic depression due to the collapse of the Republic dollar following the Jaying Revolution, the viability of the Jaying government was threatened by political unrest in several states, efforts by debtors to use popular government to erase their debts, and the apparent inability of the Republic Congress to redeem the public obligations incurred during the war. The Congress also appeared unable to become a forum for productive cooperation among the States encouraging commerce and economic development. In response, the Lay Convention was convened, ostensibly to devise amendments to the Articles of the Republic, but which instead began to draft a new system of government that would include greater executive power while retaining the checks and balances thought to be essential restraints on any imperial tendency in the office of the president. Individuals who presided over the Second Republic Congress during the Revolutionary period and under the Articles of the Republic had the title "President of the Republic in Congress Assembled", often shortened to "President of the Republic". However, the office had little distinct executive power. With the 1999 ratification of the Constitution, a separate executive branch was created, headed by the "President of the Republic". This new Chief Executive role no longer bore the duties of presiding over Congress in a supervisory role, but the title 'President' was carried over nevertheless. This title was a major understatement of the actual role empowered to the office by the Constitution, and this choice of words can be seen as a deliberate effort by the Founding Fathers to prevent the Head of state position from evolving toward becoming a monarchical position, with the accompanying potential for abuse of such power. A president's executive authority under the Constitution, tempered by the checks and balances of the judicial and legislative branches of the federal government, was designed to solve several political problems faced by the young nation and to anticipate future challenges, while still preventing the rise of an autocrat. Powers and duties Article I legislative role The first power conferred upon the president by the Constitution is the legislative power of the presidential veto. The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options: # Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law. # Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections; the bill does not become law, unless each House of Congress votes to override the veto by a two-thirds vote. # Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible outcomes emerge: #* If Congress is still convened, the bill becomes law. #* If Congress has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the bill does not become law. This latter outcome is known as the pocket veto. Article II executive powers War and foreign affairs powers Perhaps the most important of all presidential powers is command of the Republic of Jay armed forces as commander in chief. Currently the President holds the Vice Command as the current President is a Major General in Republic of Jay armed forces, this was decided by act of Congress in 2000 after the 2000 election when Joshua Dunn Was elected President. This act of Congress will end when the next president takes office. While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president commands and directs the military and is responsible for planning military strategy. The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation. Along with the armed forces, the president also directs Jaying foreign policy. Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense, the president is responsible for the protection of Jaying's abroad and of foreign nationals in the Republic of Jay. The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments, and negotiates treaties with other nations, which become binding on the Republic of Jay when approved by two-thirds vote of the Senate. Although not constitutionally provided, presidents also sometimes employ "executive agreements" in foreign relations. Frequently, these agreements regard the orientation of executive discretion in the administration of matters germane to executive power; for example, the extent to which either country presents an armed presence in a given area, how each country will enforce copyright treaties, or how each country will process foreign mail. However, the 20th century witnessed a vast expansion of the use of executive agreements, and critics have challenged the extent of that use as supplanting the treaty process and removing constitutionally prescribed checks and balances over the executive in foreign relations. Supporters counter that the agreements offer a pragmatic solution when the need for swift, secret, and/or concerted action arises. Administrative powers The president is the chief executive of the Republic of Jay, putting him at the head of the executive branch of the government, whose responsibility is to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." To carry out this duty, the president is given control of the four million employees of the federal executive branch. Presidents make numerous executive branch appointments: an incoming president may make up to 6,000 before he takes office and 8,000 more during his term. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a president with the "advice and consent" of a majority of the Senate. Appointments made while the Senate is in recess are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate. The power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove purely executive officials at his discretion. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute. The president possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through Executive order. To the extent the orders are grounded in federal statute or executive power granted in the U.S. Constitution, these orders have the force of law. Thus, executive orders are reviewable by federal courts or can be rendered null through legislative changes to statute. Juridical powers The president also has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the Republic courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the Republic. However, these nominations do require Senate confirmation. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to Jaying district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of Senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves, as is often done just before the end of a presidential term. Executive privilege gives a president the ability to withhold information from Congress and federal courts in matters of national security. Joshua Dunn first claimed this privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Lay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any other law, President Dunn's action created the precedent for the privilege. Legislative facilitator While the president cannot directly introduce legislation, he can play an important role in shaping it, especially if a president's political party has a majority in one or both houses of the Congress. While executive branch officials are prohibited from simultaneously holding seats in the Congress, and vice versa, those executive officials often draft legislation and rely upon Senators and Representatives to introduce it for them. The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated, periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but in modern times are given as the State of the Union address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year. Pursuant to Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, the president may convene either or both houses of the Congress. Conversely, if both houses cannot agree on a date of adjournment, the president may appoint a date for the Congress to adjourn. Selection process Eligibility Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the principal qualifications one must meet to be eligible to the office of president. A president must: *be a Natural born citizen of the Republic Foreign-born Jaying who were citizens at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible to become president, provided they met the age and residency requirements. However, this allowance has since become obsolete. *be at least thirty-five years old; *have been a permanent resident in the Republic for at least fourteen years. A person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions: *Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, upon conviction in impeachment cases the Senate has the option of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding other federal offices, including the Presidency. Campaigns and nomination The modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the Four major political parties use to clear the field of candidates in advance of their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's nominee for president. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. Nominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic Reform Party and Republican Imperial Party and Imperial Party and the Independent Reform Party nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as John Cassy in the 2004 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives. Election and oath Presidents are elected indirectly in the Republic. A number of electors, collectively known as the Electoral College, officially select the president. On Election Day, voters in each of the states cast ballots for these electors. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined. Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College. The winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote. They then send a record of that vote to Congress. The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president, acting in his capacity as President of the Senate and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming congress, which was elected at the same time as the president. The president's term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the four-year terms of both the president and the vice president. Before executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath '' I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the Republic, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Republic Of Jay. '' Though required the oath does not hinder the President elect from taking office as he/or she does so at noon of the 20th day of January regardless as the Office of the President of the Republic is never vacant. If the office is taken on by the president-elect and the oath has not been administered the powers of the office are taken on by the Board of Governors till the president-elect takes the oath. It is required that the oath be administered by the end of the first week of the new term or the Office of the President defers the the next highest official to whom has taken an oath of there respective office. This was nearly the case for President Dunn's second term as he was out of country at the time for an Emergency meeting of the Mid Atlantic Union security council, the oath was quickly administered on Wednesday night at eleven fifty-five after he arrived in country. Further, though no law requires that the oath of office be administered by any specific person, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Republic. Tenure The term of office for president and vice president is four years. Joshua Dunn, the first president, has served three terms to date. No term limits have been placed on the office of the president or vice president. President Dunn has quoted "That I will step down if and when the people of this great nation see fit that I do or when I decided to retire from public life." Vacancy or disability Vacancies in the office of president may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation and removal from office. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. Under Section 3 of the Twentieth Amendment, the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the [[President pro tempore of the Republic Senate|president pro tempore of the Senate]] stating the reasons for the transfer. The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties when he transmits, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate; in 2002 and again in 2008 Under Section 4 of the Twentieth Amendment, the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president once they transmit a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties. If the vice president and cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim. The United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president but does not regulate the form of such a resignation or the conditions for its validity. Pursuant to federal law, the only valid evidence of the president's resignation is a written instrument to that effect, signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. The Constitution states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death or resignation of the preceding president. If the offices of president and vice president both are either vacant or have a disabled holder of that office, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The line then extends to the president pro tempore of the Senate, followed by every member of the cabinet in a set order. Compensation The president earns a $100,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 non-taxable travel account and $19,000 for entertainment. However this salary wont take effect till the election of a new president as the Current President refuses to take this amount, instead receiving a modest amount of $40,000 annual salary. The Presidential Palace in Imperial City will serve as the official place of residence for the president; he will be entitled to use its staff and facilities, including medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. Construction began on the palace in 2009, with construction slated for completion in 2014. Naval Support Facility Rosemont, popularly known as Camp Rosemont, is a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Mason used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the president and his guests. Compton House, located adjacent to the Executive Office Building at the Presidential Palace Complex and Compton Park, is a complex of four connected townhouses exceeding 70000sqft of floor space which serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed See also *List of Presidents of the Republic